It was a beautiful day in New York City. Warm enough to walk outside with or without a jacket but cool enough to expel the sweat from one's brow. Steve and Lucy had just come from shopping a few blocks over. She had bought him a brand new brown leather jacket. It would go well with the soon to be finished, vintage motorcycle they were rebuilding in their spare time. His expression when she had shown him pictures of the beat up bike had been priceless; he'd been so delighted. It was a complicated project they were trying to draw out so they wouldn't finish too quickly and have to look for something else to do.
Currently they were sitting at a little outdoor café, enjoying a nice cup of joe and basking in the nice weather. Steve had taken out his sketchpad and was drawing the angel statues on the building across from them. Lucy was reading the paper whilst finishing her coffee. Even with her advanced knowledge of technology, sometimes it was nice to feel the ridges of paper folded together, to turn the pages, and to see images that didn't move.
A blonde waitress walked up to their table with a fresh coffee pot to refill Lucy's cup, "Waiting on the big guy?" she inquired, noticing Steve's sketch.
"Thank you." Lucy smiled up at her, adding cream to her mug.
Steve looked up confused, "Ma'am?"
"Iron man." The attendant explained kindly, motioning toward the buildings behind her, "A lot of people eat here just to see him fly by."
"Right." Steve nodded, fishing out a few dollars to pay their bill, "Maybe another time."
"The table is yours as long as you'd like." The lady insisted, filling up Steve's cup as well, "Nobody's waiting on it. Plus we've got free wireless." She called over her should as she walked off to fill another customer's cup.
"Radio?" he asked after the waitress, looking to Lucy for answers.
Lucy grinned, shaking her head, "Internet." She explained benevolently whilst patting his hand.
-sublimation-
In the Mojave Desert at the Joint Dark Energy Emissions Lab, Western Division. Center for Project Pegasus under the authority of NASA and SHIELD…
"All personnel, the evacuation order has been confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicles…" a robotic voice was blaring all over the project site, "this is not a drill. Emergency personnel, proceed to your designated vehicles for emergency evacuation."
The camp was as busy as a beehive at midday. Except for the agents and scientists running all over the place, it was the middle of the night. Every truck was loaded with people and equipment before squealing away in a long line of retreating vehicles. Lights were flashing continuously from every building, warning everyone of the alarm. Slight panic could be seen on every person's face except for one man. He wore a clean pressed suit and sunglasses, arms crossed in front of himself, patiently waiting for a black helicopter to land. As the wheels touched the ground the door slid open and out walked Agent Maria Hill wearing her standard black SHIELD uniform. As she stepped onto the pavement, ducking from the gust of wind from the propellers, she was followed closely by Director Nick Fury who stood slowly adjusting his signature trench coat.
Fury strolled over to the other two agents, "How bad is it?" he asked, cutting right to the chase.
"That's the problem, sir." Agent Coulson said, taking off his shades, "We don't know." The trio got into an elevator, which brought them down to the state of the art lab, "Doctor Selvig read an energy surge form the Tesseract four hours ago." Coulson notified the other two as they traveled down toward the emergency.
"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to pull the test phase." Fury noted, confused as they hurried around the corner.
"He wasn't testing it;" Coulson explained "he wasn't even in the room. Spontaneous advancement."
"It just turned itself on?" Hill asked skeptically, as she marched behind the two men.
Fury couldn't believe it, "What are the engine levels now?"
"Climbing." Coulson informed the others of the grave situation, "When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac."
"How long to get everyone out?" Fury inquired.
"Campus should be clear in the next half hour." Coulson responded.
Fury shook his head, "Do better." He instructed Coulson who nodded in response and filed away to follow his orders.
"Sir, evacuation maybe futile." Hill warned as she and Fury traveled down the stairs to the place where the cube was stored.
"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" the Director demanded, cynically.
"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy," She insisted, "there may not be minimum safe distance."
Fury ignored her, "I need you to make sure that the phase two prototypes are shipped out."
"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Maria persisted incredulously.
"Until such time as the world ends," the Director spun around to face her, "we will act as through it intends to spin on. Clear out the tech below. Every piece of phase two on a truck and gone."
"Yes, sir." She relented, passing by two guards she directed, "Come with me."
Entering the lab Fury shouted, "Talk to me, Doctor."
"Director." Selvig greeted, straightening from his observation of the tesseract.
"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury continued.
"The tesseract is misbehaving." Selvig replied going to greet him.
Fury stopped in front of the Doctor, "Is that supposed to be funny?"
"No, it's not funny at all." Selvig replied seriously, "The Tesseract is not only active, she's…misbehaving."
"How soon until you pull the plug?" Fury queried.
"She's an energy source." Selvig explained, "If we turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level…"
"We've prepared for this, Doctor." Fury stopped in front of the cube, "Harnessing energy from space."
"We don't have the harness." Selvig countered, "Our calculations are far from complete. Now she's throwing off interference, radiation. Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation."
Fury's head whipped around to stare at the Doctor, "That can be harmful." Looking around he asked, "Where's Agent Barton?"
"The Hawk?" pointing behind him Selvig answered, "Up in his next, as usual."
"Agent Barton, report to me." Fury called into the radio. When Hawkeye finally got down from his perch the Director continued, "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things."
"I can see better from a distance." Clint replied as they walked back over to the tesseract.
"Are you seeing anything that might set this thing off?" Fury questioned.
"Doctor, it's spiking again." One of the lab assistances called.
Clint shook his head, listing off what he'd seen, "No one's come or gone. Selvig is clean." He watched the Doctor go over to the assistant as they monitored the data, "No contacts, no IMs. If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."
Fury's gaze slowly turned from the cube to stare at the agent, "At this end?"
-sublimation-
Every night was movie night with Lucy and Steve. After a full day of learning and exploring the city, it was nice to sit back and relax. Lucy didn't find it necessary to rush Steve into anything, or to show him everything that he'd missed. He needed to know the important things, the most notable events and instances that were the most relevant to today.
Movies were a great way to do this. They could show a great deal of history in a short amount of time. She found out he loved documentaries; of course it would be something he enjoyed. But she did manage to coax him into watching some more mainstream pictures as well. They had already worked through the Lord of the Rings and Back to the Future trilogies, along with Harry Potter. Now she was showing him some of flicks that were referenced the most frequently. They started slower with Singin' in the Rain, From Here to Eternity, moving on to Monty Python, Psycho, the Princess Bride and the Disney classics. But tonight was his turn to choose unsurprisingly he chose a documentary.
The film played and the narrator's voice was lulling her to sleep. Her body was relaxed, stretched out on the couch as her head rested on a cushion in Steve's lap. He was absentmindedly playing with her hair; the delicate massage caused her eyes to flutter shut.
As the credits rolled she yawned, burrowing deeper into his chest. At some point during the night she had pulled him lower into the sofa when she had lost interest in the film and decided breathing in his scent was a better way to spend her time.
Steve stroked the side of her face, as he clicked off the television "Let's get you to bed." He chucked, amused at her endearing grogginess.
Lucy groaned in protest as he stood up slowly. Her arms wound themselves around his neck as he lifted her and moved to her bedroom. Nudging the door open he pulled back the covers and gently placed her on the bed, pulling up the sheets and tucking her inside. "Good night." He whispered as he placed a lingering kiss against her forehead.
"Night." She replied giving him one last squeeze before he stood and left the room.
-sublimation-
Clint nodded, "Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" he paused watching the Tesseract flicker with blue energy, then shrugging he finished looking at the Director, "Doors open from both sides.
"Oh shit." Selvig muttered to himself as he fiddled with the equipment.
The cube flashed again, this time bigger and brighter, catching the attention of Fury and Barton. The entire building began to shake; even Agents Coulson and Hill felt the vibrations from many floors above the source. The cube emitted pulses of energy, the lights swirling together until a powerful beam shot out of the Tesseract. The spear of energy intensified, forming a great blue portal into another universe. The streams of light grew up the high ceilings of the lab, becoming brighter and brighter until it burst sending a giant whoosh of force into every direction, the remaining swirls escaping upwards and outwards.
In the aftermath, a flaming crouched form was left in the burning embers at the end of the room. The agents began to creep their way forward, weapons at the ready. Rising from the ground, the man lifted his head to face the startled humans with a maniacal grin.
"Sir," Fury's voice ran out, "please put down the spear!"
The man lifted said weapon and shot a ball of blue power toward the agents. Leaping from the dais he attacked multiple agents. He was stronger, faster, and quicker than any of them, gunfire seemed to be useless against him.
Clint was just beginning to rise when the man strolled over to him, "You have heart." He said, before tapping his chest. The azure matter forced its way into Clint's body, from the spear, temporarily turning his eyes black before they changed to an icy blue. Agent Barton stood, now complacent, holstering his gun as he waited before his new master.
Fury watched the events unfold as he attempted to right himself. Seeing the unidentified man was distracted he quickly removed the Tesseract from the monitoring device and placed it inside a specialized briefcase.
"Please, don't." the man said as Fury was about to leave, "I still need that."
"This doesn't have to get any messier." Fury replied.
"Of course it does. I've come too far for anything else." The man scoffed before introducing himself, "I am Loki of Asgard, and I am burdened with glorious purpose."
Selvig looked up in recognition from his position checking out the dead agents, "Loki, borther of Thor?"
Loki rolled his eyes at the moniker. "We have no quarrel with your people." Fury placated him.
"An ant has go quarrel with a boot." Loki belittled the outmatched humans.
"You planning to step on us?" Fury demanded.
"I come with glad tidings," Loki paced among the wreckage, "of a world made free."
Fury regarded the madman, "Free from what?"
"Freedom. Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that, in your heart…" Loki tapped the spear against Selvig's chest as well, "you will know peace."
From above the Director, the excess energy was breaking apart the ceiling, tearing apart the infrastructure, "Yeah, you say peace, I kind of think you mean the other thing."
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling." Clint warned the Asgardian, "This place is about to blow, drop a hundred feet of raw material, he means to bury us."
"Like the Pharaohs of old." Fury jeered.
"He was right. He's right, the portal is collapsing in on itself." The Doctor called form the monitor station, "You got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
"Well then…" Loki looked to Clint who in turn shot the Director. They left Fury and headed toward the exits.
Clint nodded to Agent Hill, "Need these vehicles." He gestured as the hypnotized men got in.
"Who's that?" Maria asked suspiciously, noticing the strangely dressed man.
"He didn't tell me." Clint responded.
"Hill, do you copy?" Fury yelled into his radio, "Barton is…" before she could hear the rest Clint let loose a volley of shots in her direction, forcing her to run behind the corner. When the shots stopped she returned with her own torrent but it was too late, they had already driven too far away.
"He's got the Tesseract!" Fury tried again, limping away from the dangerous contents of the lab, "Shut them down!"
Climbing in another car, Hill gave chase. The extra energy from the portal was growing and starting to destroy the facility. Pipes were falling and the terrain was trembling as if there was an earthquake.
On the other side of the camp Coulson and his men could feel the effects of the Tesseract, "Go, no, no, no… leave it! Leave it! Go!" He commanded, shooing away the agents from the fallen equipment. "Go! Go!"
Hill had caught up to Clint and Loki. Whipping her car around she hooked on to their front, causing them to push her vehicle if they wanted to move forward. Now in a good position, she fired again at the enemy.
"We're clear upstairs, sir." Coulson radioed in, "We're good to go."
Fury had just made it to ground level where he leap into the helicopter as it lifted off the crumbling pavement. And not a moment too soon, the enormous ball of energy finally grew too large. For a second it retracted into itself and the next it exploded, collapsing the entire base at once.
Coulson and his men made it out alive but the falling tunnel buried Maria's car.
Locating Loki's car, Fury started to fire upon it until another shot of energy blew up his helicopter. It spun to the ground and Fury jumped out of it at the last second, still trying to shoot the retreating vehicle.
"Director?" Coulson spoke to his communicator again, "Director Fury, do you copy?"
Fury picked up his radio, "The Tesseract is with the hostile force. I have men down. Hill?"
"A lot of men still under, don't know how many survivors." She sighed clambering out of her destroyed car.
"Sound the general call," Fury replied, "I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase. "
"Roger, that." Maria nodded.
"Coulson, get back to base." The Director continued gravely, "This is a level seven. As of right now, we are at war."